Snowden's 2-point conversion lifts CBA in overtime

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on September 22, 2012 11:22 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Quarterback Austin Snowden is listed on Charles B. Aycock's roster at 5-foot-10, 170 pounds.

What the roster does not say is Snowden has magic in his legs.

Snowden scooped up a low snap on an extra point and scrambled to the corner of the end zone to lift the Golden Falcons to a thrilling, 28-26 overtime victory over North Lenoir on Friday night.

Aycock won for the ninth straight time in the series.

Down 20-12 after the Hawks' Caleb Baird connected on a 37-yard field goal late in the third quarter, the Golden Falcons' defense started to bottle up the visitors' offense and win the field position battle.

After a critical fourth-down stop on a fourth-and-one at the Aycock 45 midway through the final quarter, the Golden Falcons took over. Jeremy Hooks found running room behind AJ Mundle and the offensive line, and his 23-yard touchdown run pulled Aycock to within 20-18.

Snowden's two-point conversion tied the game at 20-all with seven minutes to go.

"AJ started to dominate the block for us," Golden Falcons' head coach Randy Pinkowski said. "We were getting some horizontal push and that is when Jeremy would stretch it and turn it back inside because AJ was dominating for us."

Aycock fumbled away a chance to take the lead deep in North Lenoir territory late in the fourth quarter.

The Hawks went on offense first in overtime and scored on Landon Baker's 7-yard pass to Marsharee Troy. Baird's extra point was blocked, which left the door open for Snowden and the Golden Falcons.

"It is real tough," North Lenoir head coach Calvin Sutton said. "There is nothing you can say. We just came up short at the end of the night."

Snowden's 7-yard touchdown pass to Mundle in overtime tied the game and set up his last-play theatrics. Snowden fielded a low snap on the extra-point attempt, stumbled momentarily, regained his balance and raced to the end zone for the game-winning two-point conversion.

"It was a bad snap and I just beat them to the end," Snowden said. "It is an amazing feeling and God was just looking down us. We just had to put the first half behind us and come out and play like it was 0-0."

Brandon Holloway's 1-yard touchdown run and Baird's 39-yard field goal gave North Lenoir a 10-0 lead. Hooks, who finished with 126 yards on 11 carries, trimmed the deficit to 10-6 on a 24-yard touchdown run.

The Hawks (1-5 overall, 0-2 ECC) recovered a Golden Falcons' fumble deep in Aycock territory and North Lenoir cashed in the turnover on Troy's 3-yard touchdown run to extended the lead to 17-6.

The Golden Falcons (3-3, 1-1) had six plays in the first half that resulted in negative yardage and committed two costly turnovers.